Got an email from former employer's HR benefits lady (who I emailed this morning) that the new admin has agreed to accept a late payment and reinstate my insurance!!!11!!!!

I feel like I can breathe again.

I suspect there are still a number of hurdles to jump but as long as I'm insured, without any gap in coverage, I can jump as high as the rest of 'em.

What a fucking miserable week I had (really just the last 4 days of it) thinking I wasn't going to be insured. Sometimes I worry about the lack of compassion in this world. So many people were either indifferent to my plight, or even worse, became hostile and blamed me for it!

I think I'm going to contact Representative Cleaver and share my story. Senator McCaskill too (she's on the fence about the public option I've heard...)

Anyone want to join me in volunteering for Olbermann's Free Health Care Clinics here in KC? I'll be there both days. They are looking for medical and non-medical folks to help send a message to our fence-riding Democratic senator(s) who aren't supporting a public option.

Would you sketch something that depicts Hindsight Bias for me? Or find me a good pictorial representation?

I am doing a Power Point presentation for a class and can't come up with a decent graphic.

I envision a guy walking along, looking backwards at a hole with a ladder coming out of it, heading towards another hole. What do you see?

It can be a comic, a photo, a drawing, whatever.

So I think that COBRA is a big fat scam. When I first got fired I immediately paid my dues and proceeded to not have insurance for 6 weeks. Now my COBRA administrator changed (without my knowledge) and my last payment went to the previous admin and it's going to be "at least 10-15 business days" AFTER they receive the funds from the former administrator before I have access to my insurance. Former administrator is unable to verify when they will submit funds, just that it is "in queue" to be done.

Then there's going to be the 6 weeks of claims that were made from the end of September until now that have already been paid that may have to be refunded (by the pharmacy and doctor's office? or will they just collect it twice because there's no way they'll be able to get it back from CVS?) depending on the time frame here. And I will have to explain to my doctors billing companies that they will have to resubmit the claims because of a paperwork snafu, delaying payment for them even longer than the typical 2-3 months. And I won't be able to get my meds filled this month likely (fortunately I'm a drug hoarder just because of previous experiences like this and have plenty).

Who says we don't need health insurance reform with a public option? This alone is an administrative nightmare for at least 5 entities (two COBRA companies, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, my two doctors' billing offices...let alone the docs that don't get paid in anything like a timely manner and have to pay god knows what percentage of their overhead for staff to siphon through all this red tape). Oh, I forgot ME, 6 entities.

Four 'new' Buckley 'Hallelujahs'

Live at L'Olympia (2001)
Live at Sin-E (2003)
Live from the Bataclan (1996)
Mystery White Boy (live '95 & '96)

Here's an excellent description of our show, even though it was in Cleveland. I think he's doing his goodbyes to the world, his friends.

I am moving to Belgium.

Here's some impressions of last night's concert (with a set list) with which I agree.

I have a song in my heart today.

Thank you Mr. Cohen (if I had on a hat I would tip it solemnly and then skip joyously away).

What, at 36, is the appropriate use of stuffed animals in home decoration?

My inclination is "None whatsoever" but I've got these Important ones that I don't want to put in storage...

Fake a child's/Down Syndrome adult's room? Hang 'em in effigy in my Confederate flag room? Something Furry related...they ARE mostly bears.

Ideas?

Those of you who have no hesitation about vaccination, what are your rationales?

(I am asking generally, not as a rebuttal to what was said in the previous post. Please respect my friends' views and their willingness to share.)

For you parents who are hesitant to vaccinate your kids what is the key issue that gives you pause?

I came home to discover I had been robbed and vandalized because I forgot to turn on my alarm. I had gone back outside to check something and saw my neighbors huddled around on their lawn pointing at my second floor bedroom window. The thieves were in there, looking down at us! I got really pissed, called 911, and then flipped the fuckers off. This didn't help. They got looks of fury on their faces and stormed out of the house, my stuff in tow. I just stood impotently by as they walked off with god knows what of my possessions. Interestingly I was most concerned about the things I couldn't remember, thus could not tell if they were gone. What movies did I lose? Books? (They were strange burglars.) Then I remembered my wedding rings (and in the dream I thought I still had the diamond engagement ring too). As I was searching frantically for the rings I remembered that I had given the diamond ring back and was quite relieved. I found a number of rings but none of them were my parents' wedding bands. Finally, at the bottom of the pile, they were there. All of a sudden I didn't care as much about what else I had lost. Then I found the other things they had left. A pile of broke ass tvs artfully placed in the corner of my room; when moved a friendly black and white cat appeared. I suspect there were more 'gifts' but I woke up.

I also dreamed that I spent an entire day in a thrift store. Fought a family over a set of doorway beads (and was victorious). And left in extremely tight sequined pants, shoes, and hat. All of which was gaudy and did not match anything at all.

I now feel uneasy from these dreams. It is interesting.

I am plagued by the sound of my phone ringing everywhere I go. It is disconcerting.

I think livejournal is dying. It seems like there are so few people commenting these days. DON'T LET FACEBOOK AND TWITTER WIN! They are such a devolved version of this. I can't imagine my life without this outlet. And yes, the interaction is mostly what keeps me here.

I mean hell, I posted a picture with my bare breasts in it and no one even mentioned it!

I went to my doctor (and saw my friend Nikki who is about to graduate from the NP program I am currently attending!) and was advised against antibiotics or any sort of intervention for now. It looks much better this morning. Though the deep scratch and yellow Betadine and slight bruising is getting me a lot of second looks this morning. I feel like a badass. People are staring and I turn so they can see it better and look them straight in the eye. Like Geek Love.

( Here's another wound picture. )

Unemployment is officially mine. Direct deposit came through this morning. Now I'm thinking about more aggressively pursuing a law suit against my former employer. According to the Division of Employment Security Missouri law is on my side here. I don't really care about the money, I just want them to damn well know that they were in the wrong.

grandpas_weiner arrived at frangelica andpittydafool's last night. Lucky bastards.

I have a Patho test on Thursday that I should study for but I'm not feeling it right now.

I think I will finish my book about the Federal Writers' Project and relax instead.

One of my crazy felines (I'm not sure which) just skittered across my face in sheer terror of god knows what and scratched me. It stopped bleeding immediately (yay) but now I am thinking I might need a stitch or two. I've coated it with industrial strength Betadine twice now (and will do it again shortly). It stays closed unless I move my eyebrows at all (which I do with alarming regularity). I've sent someone to get me some steristrips.

What do you think?
( Really gnarly wound back here. )

Ouch.

Sexual Assault Prevention techniques - 100% guaranteed

Way to address the real issue!

ETA: via eschewv's twitter.

Via ms_daisy_cutter:

Free Public Library of Philadelphia to close due to lack of funding. The first public library system in the U.S., founded in part by Benjamin Franklin, gone.

I can't even imagine life without my library. I go at least twice a week. I'm not typically a doom sayer, but this has me creeped.

What can we do?

I love you

I inadvertently looked at a yahoo thread about the President's summer reading list and got disgusted with the comments.

"How DARE he go on vacation when people are dying?"
"Mein Kampf should be first on that list..."
"Have you seen the guy try to go off teleprompter? It's totally hilarious to watch him slip up.."

I have (obviously) cleaned up the spelling and grammar and I'm not linking to it.

Anyway, I decided to check out a couple books on the list (The Way Home and Lush Life).

I've since started and given up on both. Didn't hold my interest. Too predictable with not enough magic. Oh New York Times Bestseller List, you have let me down. I hope President Obama had better luck with his reading!

I'm moving on to The Little Book of Letting Go, which so far has been nice but a little simplistic. I just finished the Transmetropolitan graphic novel series by Warren Ellis, which was phenomenal. I'm waiting for my copy of Soul of a People: The WPA Writer's Project Uncovers Depression America which looks riveting.

What have you read lately?

Every time I look at this I laugh.

As promised here and mentioned various times throughout the years.



( I give you....ACLU pasties on the Boise Idaho Capitol Steps )

Photos by: temptedlady

I need more people to txt and I don't really like twittering.

Give me your cell phone number and I will bless you with my words and you can do the same for me. I will not call unless we discuss it first.

(Comments screened.)

I am so happy!

It is the perfect discovery/follow up to my last entry and its vulvaness!

( One of my willow tree that I had to hack all of the dead branches off of which is working really hard to regenerate itself and me ready to go to The Party with a vulva on my tum (I made it by accident while editing! That's sort of like seeing the virgin in a tortilla or something, right?) )

You think the tree will make it 'til next year?
You see the vulva?

Tell me I'm awesome. You know its true.

In light of my upcoming photo shoot I thought I'd share the day I posed on the steps of the Capitol Building in Boise, Idaho in ACLU nipple pasties. It was a few weeks after 9/11 and our governor (Dirk Kempthorne) had gone nuts, assuming we were the next targets, and stationed 24 hour surveillance by National Guardsmen as well as surrounding the entire capitol with pylons and sand bags. I lived a few blocks away from the capitol and we'd been planning this event long before the towers went down.

( Originally posted in March 2003 in re: 9/30/01 )

Soon: the pictures (and they are much better quality than my chop job above, I promise!)

My icon that says "Democrats just want to kill your baby. Republicans want to fuck it" (or some facsimile there of) has vanished. When I select it I post iconless and when I look in my list it is not there.

But my jiggling breasts and various other NSFW icons remain intact.

Anyone know why?

Kindle glitch or Russian 1984esque meddling? *eyebrow raise*

Anyone know a good free internet fax site that allows for attaching scanned documents and sends confirmation email when complete?

I got rid of my home phone and I'm lost without my fax capabilities!

I watch people send txt messages on those cable music channels. "URmigurl4vr Shalyia 6.5.09!!!" Stuff like that....

Anyway, thank goodness I was listening to lyrics when we hit "Metal" last night because I made the best discovery EVER (since maybe Axel4Love even).

Steel Panther.

On the surface, glam metal.

Underneath, OMG.

This is the song I heard (though it was slightly edited for tv):

Community Property

YEAH!